Mosel Pinot Noir is one of the most improbable pleasures in German wine right now, and Max Kilburg is among the very few doing it at a serious level. He's a 20th-generation Mosel winemaker, farming the family's Geierslay estate in Wintrich plus his own micro-project of old-vine Grand Cru parcels totaling about 1.2 hectares, and he trained with Julian Haart — the rigor shows. The Pinot comes from Ohligsberg, the steep, south-facing blue- and gray-slate Grand Cru that sits directly behind the winery, off vines his father planted in the mid-1980s; the slate holds heat and drains hard, which is exactly what red grapes need this far north. This is very early work — 2022 was only his second vintage of Pinot from the site —, and Max is open about still chasing his style, with an eye on Fourrier. 2022 has been quietly overlooked across his range, which is precisely why it's worth grabbing: a rare, lithe, slate-driven Pinot from a grower whose Rieslings are the reason most people know the name.